Life is very full. We can organize it. Structure it. Schedule it. Arrange every minute of every day so that we can get everything done we think needs to be done. I remember as a young man in business carrying something called a Day-Timer. I tried to keep my life scheduled down to the hour. In my mind, success required organization. It required structure. It required me to stay on task. And that followed me for a lot of years. The problem was what happened when the schedule go

The enemy brings death and destruction, but Christ offers life. Embrace it and live fully! I don't talk a great deal in Soul Weathered about spiritual warfare, Satan, or the enemy. But that doesn't mean I don't believe it's real. We live in a world at war. Scripture tells us: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”—1 Peter 5:8 That's a reality we shouldn't ignore. Over the years, I've spent a lot of time talking with men about s

Sometimes the greatest comfort isn't an explanation. It's knowing you're not alone. There are moments in life that never leave you. One of those moments for me happened in a children's hospital. Our oldest daughter had been battling Crohn's disease. It seemed like one setback after another. Every time we thought she was getting better, something else happened. This day was especially hard. She was sixteen years old, fully aware of what was happening, and the doctors needed to

One of the themes throughout Soul Weathered is what I call our inner weather. Not the weather outside us. The weather within us. The emotions no one else sees. The conversations no one else hears. One of those conversations has followed me for most of my adult life. It's the way I speak to myself. I've always been impatient. Not just with traffic. Not just with delays. Not even primarily with other people. I've been impatient with me. For years, every little mistake became an

One of the recurring themes throughout Soul Weathered is the relentless love of God. His pursuit of us. His kindness toward us. His fatherly care. Over and over, I've written about God's love flowing toward us. But recently, God has been showing me something different through my granddaughter. Something about how we love Him back. My granddaughter often spends the night with us. And like many four-year-olds, she likes to sleep close. Sometimes she sleeps between us. Sometimes

There’s a section of devotions in Soul Weathered centered around fatherhood. Not because I figured it out perfectly. But because raising my daughters taught me more about the heart of God than almost anything else in my life. When my wife and I first started raising children, we had a very clear idea of the kind of parents we were going to be. Or at least we thought we did. A lot of our thinking came from teachings on “tough love”—raising children with firmness, structure, co

What does it take to have the heart of a warrior? Most men might answer that with words like strength, courage, discipline, vigilance, sacrifice. And they would be right. But not completely. Because the longer I’ve walked with men, the more convinced I’ve become that the heart of a true warrior begins somewhere most men don’t want to go. Weakness. Not weakness as passivity. Not weakness as cowardice. Not weakness as giving up. But the kind of weakness that admits: I do not ha

In my last post, I shared the moment when I realized something simple: If I wanted to be the man my family needed…I needed to follow God. But what I didn’t share is what that actually looked like. The picture I had at the time has stayed with me ever since. It was as if God had always been right behind me. Close.Present.Faithful. Almost like He was tapping me on the shoulder. And every once in a while, I would turn just enough to notice.Just enough to respond.Just enough to s

There was a point in my life when I realized something wasn’t lining up. I was a believer.I cared about God.I would have told you I was following Him. But when I looked closer… I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. I was available to God—as long as it didn’t interfere with my plans. It became clear to me in my 30s. My daughter was growing up, and I could see how much those years mattered. Not just being around—but how I showed up as a father. I remember making small decisi